One door closes …

When our son Richard became the youngest Master Chef of Great Britain (an association of fewer than 300 top professionals), Jan and I felt it was time for him to run his own restaurant. Strapped for cash and tied to Arran with our other businesses, our only option was to find suitable island premises. Over the next couple of years we monitored footfall at local eateries, consulted numerous visitors about their dining preferences and gradually developed a business plan. Originally we hoped to take over what had been Kames shop (now Jolly Molly), but the premises proved too small, so we returned to the drawing board. A year or so later Bilslands Outdoors became available – nothing remotely like a restaurant, but a large open space, with a landlord very willing to let us convert it as necessary.

Until the premises were almost ready, Richard was fully committed as head chef in a Sussex restaurant, so mum and dad became project managers, dealing with the architect, council and licence application, together with all the trades involved. Friends and family were invited to invest in our ‘premises conversion fund’ and to minimise our costs Jan and I did as much of the building work as we could. Jan proved adept at working with micro bore piping, manoeuvring great lengths of the stuff to plumb in the numerous radiators. I spent three weeks in the toilets, tiling and decorating. Friends responded admirably to our cries for help. The winter of 2009/10 was very cold and prior to getting the heating on we worked in literally freezing conditions, consoling ourselves that at least we would soon be enjoying wonderful meals out. It never entered our minds that we might end up running the business.

With black comic timing, we opened just as the recession began to throttle the restaurant trade up and down the country, especially at the fine dining end of the scale. Richard’s fabulous food was appreciated by an ever dwindling number of customers and after a couple of years it became clear that our restaurant was not furthering our son’s career as intended. Having signed a five-year lease, we had no option but to continue trading, though could no longer afford to employ our son and his team of chefs. What to do? We negotiated with someone interested in sub-leasing the premises, but in the end they backed out, so our options were limited. Having previously served dinners for our guests at Belvedere for many years, in a moment of madness I suggested that Jan and I should take over the business as we would work without remuneration. “Dad, you can’t run a restaurant!” was Richard’s initial response, but in the end none of us could think of an alternative, so Richard drew up a simplified menu and proceeded to teach me how to cook everything. By this time he had committed to join a luxury yacht, cooking for the rich and famous in Canne, Monaco and St Tropez so we only had two and a half days together for him to teach me everything I needed to know.